Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:44:00
 |
| Article by:
Morgan Davis
|
|
|
|
|
By Morgan Davis
"You don’t have to do it alone.”
This is the message the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center sends to parents.
A dynamic nonprofit organization filled with compassionate volunteers, committed staff and courageous families, the center recognizes that raising and protecting children is a challenge. It is dedicated to empowering children and providing parents with the necessary support to ensure safe parenting. And statistics show the center, or CAPC, is responding to a giant need in the community.
Child Welfare Services reports that San Francisco receives approximately 6,000 child abuse reports every year, which equates to 5 percent of the city’s population of children under age 17. Compiled 2003 San Francisco Police reports show that 10,000 children under the age of 18 are exposed to domestic violence every year.
Thousands of local children are calling for help.
CAPC answers this call … literally. TALK Line – its crisis hotline – operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, offering uninterrupted service for 35-plus years. More than 19,000 calls between volunteers and parents or caregivers in crisis take place annually. The TALK Line Family Support Center also offers a number of parent programs, and childcare, even for other programs run in its space (for example, 12-step meetings), lifting a burden that prevents many parents from seeking aid.
Located in a restored firehouse near Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle, this unsuspecting powerhouse was bustling on a recent February morning. The children’s playroom was filled with colors and toys; encouraging posters and children’s paintings hang on the wall. In several languages, children interact with each other, with volunteers and with their parents. Children playing with miniature fire engines remind each other that this room used to be where the fire engines lived.
From a tiny kitchen, hidden behind the stroller parking, Lead Playroom Staff Helena Edwards serves family dinners once a week. The drop-in program provides care to more than 475 children throughout the year. A small hallway outside houses a table overflowing with children’s clothes, toys and books; parents donate items their children have outgrown, and take things their children need. For the adults, supporters like Peet’s and Starbucks provide coffee and Danishes and another generous donor gave a computer to the center for parents to use while kids are at play.
The center also offers other direct services to families, runs education programs in schools and in the professional community and coordinates and advocates for systems improvements. Therapists at the center provide approximately 3,500 free or low-cost appointments each year.
Other program and services include CAPC’s Child Safety Awareness program, which educates more than 6,700 elementary schoolchildren and hundreds of parents; the SafeStart Initiative, a collaborative that provides services to more than 150 families impacted by violence and trauma annually; and more.
“We’re here to support parents,” said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, director of New Programming and a licensed clinical social worker who counsels clients on-site. She added that even those parents who are armed with degrees and have resources and socioeconomic freedom aren’t always prepared for the daily experiences of parenting. Though 93 percent of the families served are extremely low-income or low-income groups, support is available for all who need it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks child abuse as America’s number one public health crisis. Stewart-Kahn describes it as an energizing time: as child development knowledge increases and more is being learned about emotional and physical abuse, the impact of child abuse on development and health issues is becoming clear. Studies show abused or neglected children are at higher risk for health problems as adults, including alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, eating disorders, obesity, sexual promiscuity, smoking, suicide and certain chronic diseases.
A recent report by The Pew Charitable Trusts showed abuse to a child costs the country $103.8 billion annually, equating $284 million per day across a number of social systems, including health care, education and law enforcement.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a study in February that shows a decline in child abuse instances over the past decade – the first time data has shown a decline in child abuse instances since being collected on the subject. The study compares instances in 2005-2006 to 1993, and shows the number of sexually abused children decreased from 217,700 to 135,300 – a 38 percent decline. Instances of physical abuse decreased by 15 percent and the number of children emotionally abused decreased by 27 percent.
Public awareness and prevention work by organizations like the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center are given much of the credit. Stewart-Kahn and her team at the center say they are proud, but explain that these statistics were captured by 2006 – before the economy tanked and unemployment rose. Unemployment is a risk factor for abuse.
According to a report from Katie Albright, CAPC’s executive director, in the first six months of 2009, the center reported more instances of child abuse to Child Protective Services than in all of 2008, with a significantly higher need for emergency food and childcare, job and housing assistance and mental health therapy.
“The decline the federal survey shows is empowering,” Stewart-Kahn said. “It’s a reward to see signs we – and similar organizations – are having an impact. That’s thrilling. And it shows we still have more work to do.”
Parents who need support can call (415) 441-KIDS.
April: Child Abuse Prevention Month
On April 30, the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center will host its 13th Annual Blue Ribbon Luncheon, where Former 49er Super Bowl champion and youth advocate Riki Ellison will present the keynote speech.
The luncheon and the blue ribbons worn through the month of April promote awareness of child abuse and revenues from the luncheon, along with foundation grants, fund the center’s programming. Despite the heavy financial burden left by budget cuts and dwindling grants, the center has remained afloat thanks to its community.
“We have pro bono consultants,” said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, director of New Programming. “We rely on board members and volunteers. We’re so grateful for their generosity of time and spirit.”
For information about the Center’s Blue Ribbon Luncheon or how to get involved, visit sfcapc.org.
|
